Defending the Christian faith and promoting its wisdom against the secular and religious challenges of our day.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Repentance Revisited: Is it necessary for Salvation?

The weightiest objection against repentance as a requirement
for salvation is that it undermines the Good
News – that God has given us the free gift of eternal life through nothing
more than faith in the work of Jesus.

The repentance issue is closely related to the “Lordship
Salvation” controversy. Lordship theologians hold that saving faith must
include the commitment or determination to make Jesus Lord of our lives. On the
other side of the controversy are those who claim that commitment or repentance
is not necessary for salvation. They define “faith” narrowly as simply a matter
of mental agreement to certain propositions like:

Jesus
is the Son of God.

He
died for our sins.

Believing
these truths is the only route to eternal life.

Sometimes, this theology is called “easy-believism.” I will
call it “salvation–by-only- acknowledging-truths” (SOBAT). Arguing for this
position, theologian Charles C. Bing wrote:

The
most critical issue in the Lordship Salvation debate is the nature of
faith and its relationship to works. Since a person is saved by grace
through faith (Eph. 2:8-9), faith must be defined in a way that agrees
with the nature of grace.The
Lordship understanding of faith contradicts the free grace of God in the
gospel by requiring works at some point. (Freely by His Grace, 101)

Bing is right about a few things, and even Lordship
Salvation theologians would agree with him:

Our
understanding of faith must coincide with our understanding of salvation
and grace as free gifts, lest we have grounds for boasting. (However,
SOBAT is reluctant to regard faith also as part of free-gift-salvation).

Some
Lordship Salvation defenses have wrongly construed works and commitment as
meritorious works, undermining our understanding of the graciousness of
salvation.

However, in order to protect the teaching that salvation is
purely a free gift of Grace, Bing and other SOBATs claim that saving faith is only a matter of mental assent without
any need for commitment or repentance. I think that this is a big mistake and
will try to demonstrate how mere mental assent fails to measure up to the
standard of Biblical faith and then how we should understand repentance in a
way that doesn’t violate the concepts of faith or grace.

The demons can also assent to the truths of the Gospel, but
this doesn’t save them. James claims that demons believe in “one God” but yet
they remain unsaved:

But someone will say,
"You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without
deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there
is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder. (James 2:18-19)

Their problem isn’t that they fail to give
mental assent to certain truths. Their problem is that their faith isn’t a
Biblical faith. It doesn’t contain any commitment or repentance. In fact, the
demons probably know the Gospel better than most of us and could quickly
acknowledge its tenants.

However, in opposition to this, SOBAT
theologian J.B. Hixson claims that the demons’ problem is not that they lack commitment or repentance but that they
lack enough Gospel knowledge:

The object of their [the
demons’] faith – the proposition they believe- is the unity of God. No
one, demons or otherwise, receives eternal salvation by believing in the
unity of God. (162)

However,
to suppose that demons only
understand that God is One is not Scriptural. Clearly, they understand far
more. They show evidence that they believe that Jesus is the Son of God and
that He will judge them:

When he arrived at the
other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming
from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that
way. "What do you want with us, Son of God?" they shouted.
"Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?" (Matthew 8:28-29; also Mark 1:23-24;
3:11; 5:6-7; Luke 4:33-34, 41: 8:28)

Nor
should we suppose that this is not all that they understand. They even know
something about the way of salvation through the Son:

Once when we were going to
the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which
she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners
by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting,
"These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the
way to be saved." (Acts
16:16-17)

Demons
clearly have a lot of knowledge. They know Scripture (Mat. 4:6) and have the
ability to deceive us (2 Cor. 11:14-15; 4:4; 1 Tim. 4:1) However, we are not
saved purely by our knowledge. The Biblical concept of faith must include more
than mere knowledge. And it does.

Jesus
told a parable about two people – a Pharisee and a tax-collector – who went
into the Temple
to pray. Only the despised tax collector left “justified” – saved (Luke
18:9-14). Doubtlessly, the Pharisee could give assent to far more doctrine than
could the sinner, but evidently, he lacked saving faith. Clearly, we are not
saved by our knowledge of the Gospel alone.
While the Pharisee was in denial about his own sin and was consequently
unwilling to confess and repent, the tax collector was clearly repentant. Jesus
explained that the Pharisees problem was not that he lacked the proper doctrine but
that he had refused to humble himself to acknowledge his sin, and that made all
the difference. Saving faith must include confession of sin (1 John 1:8-9).

REPENTANCE
IS NOT A WORK; NOR IS IT MERITORIOUS; NOR DOES THE REQUIREMENT OF REPENTANCE
CONTRADICT THE BIBLICAL ASSERTION THAT SALVATION IS BY FAITH ALONE.

Repentance is not a meritorious work. John
the Baptist contrasts repentance with the good deeds that will be brought forth
by a repentant heart:

But when he saw many of
the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to
them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming
wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. (Matthew 3:7-8; Luke 3:8)

It is easy to say, “I repent of my sins.” It
is entirely another thing to “produce fruit” that reflect a repentant heart. Although a change of heart regarding our
sins (repentance) is key, the Pharisees were often in denial about their status
before the God they professed (Matthew 23; Luke 16:15; 18:9). Consequently, God
gave the law to give us an objective measure in regards to our spiritual and
moral standing. Bringing forth the fruit (good works) required by the law would
reveal whether someone was truly repentant and regretted their sins
(Rom.3:19-20).

The
fruit wasn’t repentance itself. Instead, it was the fruit of repentance. If we
truly regret our sins, we will do something about them. A good tree bears good
fruit. At least the effort is there.

The
ISBE defines “repentance” (Greek, “metanoeñoô”) as:

Spiritual change implied
in a sinner's return to God. The term signifies "to have another
mind," to change the opinion or purpose with regard to sin.

In
some instances, the ISBE defines it as a feeling but never as a work or as
obedience. As a change of heart and mind, it seems to be almost synonymous with
faith.

Faith is a turning to God;
repentance is a turning away from sin.

Faith is a trust in God;
repentance is a rejection of trust in self.

If faith is the
determination to live for Christ, then repentance is the determination to
turn from what we had lived for.

Seen
in this way, faith-repentance represents a single turn away from sin and to
God. They are opposite sides of the same coin, not two separate activities. When
I turned to Christ, I correspondingly decided that I no longer wanted my old
life.

There are many evidences that a real
Biblical faith and repentance are inseparable. They both come as gifts from
God:

For it is by grace you
have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the
gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephes. 2:8-9; also
Rom. 12:3; Phil. 1:29; Acts 18:27; 16:14; 13:48; 3:16)

The
same principle also applies to repentance. It is granted by God:

When they heard this, they
had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has
granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life." (Acts 11:18; 3:36; 5:31; 2 Tim. 2:24-25).

Also, repentance leads to “life” – salvation from
our sins. There are many other verses that list repentance as the requirement
for salvation without any mention of faith:

He told them, "This
is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the
third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his
name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
(Luke 24:46-47)

Repent, then, and turn to
God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come
from the Lord, (Acts 3:19; also
Acts 2:38; 17:30)

These
verses are clearly referring to salvation – reconciliation with God. This can
only occur in conjunction with “forgiveness of sins.” Why is there no mention
of faith here? Are these verses suggesting that faith is unnecessary for
salvation? Of course not! However, if repentance is inseparable from the concept
of faith – both being opposite sides of the same coin - then it would be redundant
to say “repent and believe.”

Consequently,
when John the Baptist and Jesus preached “repent for the Kingdom of God
is at hand,” it was understood that this command also entailed a trust in God.
Repenting from sin, while totally neglecting God, was a ludicrous idea.
Likewise, trusting in God, while continuing to trust in our own sinful devices,
is equally ludicrous.

A
refusal to repent is a refusal to trust in God. Just imagine one of your
congregants requesting that you baptize them, saying:

Pastor, I fully trust in
Jesus and believe whatever He teaches. However, I must be totally honest
with you. I simply refuse to stop molesting little boys. It’s just too
important to me. However, I understand that faith is simply mental assent
to the truths of Scripture. Therefore, I agree that pedophilia is wrong,
but I’m not going to give it up.

This,
of course, is ludicrous. If someone trusts in Jesus, he will do what Jesus
tells him to do! When someone refuses to do this, it means that he doesn’t
trust in Him. Instead, he believes that he knows better about what is good for
him than does Jesus. This is not faith but self-deception.

If
you were to baptize him and extend him the right-hand-of-fellowship, you would
then have to quickly retract it and bring church disciplinary charges against
him. How ludicrous!

However,
it would have been very different if the pedophile had said instead:

Pastor, I don’t have the
strength to quit molesting, but I want to trust that Jesus will help me.

In
contrast, this is a cry of repentance and a willingness to follow Jesus! This
is also a demonstration of faith.

Faith entails repentance and therefore,
repentance is not an extra condition for salvation. SOBAT theologian Charles
C. Bing defines saving faith (“pisteuo”) as merely “to be convinced of
something” (101). However, this falls far short of the robust portrait of faith
that we receive from Scripture. In Scripture we find that faith is not simply a
decision to acknowledge certain precepts. Because the natural man is opposed to
the light (John 3:19-20), regards the things of God as “foolishness” (1 Cor.
2:14), and, consequently, does not seek God (Rom. 3:10-12), a change of heart
is required.

Moses
confessed to Israel
that “to this day the Lord has not
given you a heart to know” [or believe] (Deut. 29:4; NASB). However, Moses promised that God would “circumcise
your hearts…so that you may love him” (Deut.
30:6). As Ezekiel revealed, faith is predicated upon a new heart and Spirit:

I will sprinkle clean
water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your
impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a
new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you
a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow
my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

This
new heart (along with the Holy Spirit) – the pre-condition for faith – would not
only produce assent to His truths, but also a love for God and a readiness “to
follow my decrees.” It will also produce a willingness to turn from the old
life (repentance):

Then you will remember
your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your
sins and detestable practices. (Ezekiel
36:31)

Faith and repentance are a package deal. They
are inseparable. They come from the same gift of a new heart. The reality of
the New Covenant will not allow us to affirm a faith that lacks commitment and
repentance. In the end, when God pours out His Holy Spirit upon Israel, they
will not simply acknowledge a certain set of truths, but they will also repent
of their sins and seek Him (Zech. 12:10 -13:1). Jeremiah described this New Covenant reality: God
would "put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). As a result:

They will always fear me
[faith]…so that they will never turn away from me [repentance]. (Jeremiah 32:39-40)

Being
born again – receiving and new heart and the Spirit – means that we will
receive those truths that we had once hated and rejected. It also necessarily
means that we will repent of our former ways, including our hatred of the
light! It is impossible to believe if we still retain our former hatred of
truth and refuse to repent of it. Faith and repentance are as inseparable as
the heads and tails of the same coin.